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300,000 people are diagnosed each year with glioblastoma - one of the most common and deadly forms of brain cancer.
It's a death sentence.
After diagnosis, the median survival time is about 12 months, even with state-of-the-art treatment. Only ~5% of patients make it to the 5 year mark. And despite tremendous advancement in treating other types of cancer over the past few decades, outcomes for this particular cancer haven't changed much.
Glioblastoma is clearly a problem that demands a new way of thinking. That's why we invested in Coherence Neuro.
Coherence is developing the SOMA-1;, an implantable device designed to do two things:
Coherence’s SOMA-1 is implanted during the tumor removal surgery that most Glioblastoma patients already receive, adding minimal additional patient risk or burden. Once implanted, it begins electrically stimulating the area where the tumor was removed to prevent regrowth while also collecting data on how the disease is behaving in real time.
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The idea of using electricity to treat cancer might sound unconventional, but there's strong precedent. Novocure has already proven the concept, generating over $600M in revenue last year with a wearable device. But Novocure’s product requires patients to shave their head and wear a sweaty, itchy, full-head electrocap and carry a bulky power supply pack nearly 24/7. Despite this burden, it works - extending life by several months in many cases, with super-users seeing up to 9 months of life extension.
The market validation is clear: desperate patients and their families are already paying for electrical cancer treatment, even in its current, cumbersome form.
Coherence is taking a more precise and convenient approach. SOMA-1 is fully implantable, MRI-safe, and delivers targeted stimulation exactly where it's needed. No headcaps, no backpacks, no lifestyle disruption - just continuous, optimized treatment.
And SOMA-1’s continuous monitoring is a significant improvement over the status quo. Today, doctors only know what's happening through periodic MRIs spaced months apart—by the time regrowth is detected, it's often too late. SOMA-1 could catch changes as they happen, enabling immediate, real-time treatment adjustments.
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The above reasons exemplify how Coherence hits some of our core Human 3 criteria, namely:
The opportunity to build a step-change implementation on top of an already validated biological mechanism is rare - usually you just get one or the other. We naturally get incredibly excited when we see startups that simultaneously check both of these boxes.
While glioblastoma is the first target, the Coherence platform has broader potential. Cancer cells throughout the body are electrically active, opening doors to applications in pancreatic, lung, and other difficult-to-treat cancers.
Cofounders Ben Woodington and Elise Jenkins met during their PhDs at the University of Cambridge and started Coherence in 2022. Since then, they’ve moved quickly toward human studies, with first chronic implantations planned for 2027.
At XEIA, we invest in companies working at the intersection of health and technology—especially where existing options have failed patients for decades. Coherence represents exactly the kind of breakthrough thinking that turns medical dead-ends into hope.
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